Overview
Authorities in southern Lebanon have warned residents who were displaced by three months of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah not to rush back following an agreement between the United States and Iran that was announced early on Monday. Municipal councils in the mainly Shi'ite south, where Israeli forces have occupied a self-declared security zone, issued public statements urging people to remain where they are, the state-run National News Agency reported.
What the agreement says
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who served as a mediator between Tehran and Washington, announced that a deal was reached early on Monday local time and that it called for "the immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon". The announcement prompted cautious reactions on the ground in Lebanon, where years of tension and recent months of open warfare have displaced large portions of the population.
Local reaction and displacement
Many civilians remain unconvinced that the situation on the ground will change quickly. Mona Mazeh, a displaced woman sheltering in Beirut's Hamra district, said she had no immediate plans to return to her village near Tyre. "Frankly, we are hesitant; Israel cannot be trusted," she said.
In Nabatieh, a city in the south that has seen extensive damage, resident Mohammed Daqdouq returned on Monday morning to inspect his home. He described the scale of destruction and the long road ahead: "We’ll need a lifetime to rebuild - to rebuild it again and bring Nabatieh back to how it was," he said.
Israel's position
Israel is not a party to the U.S.-Iran agreement. Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said Israel would not withdraw from security zones in southern Lebanon, Gaza and Syria. Katz also warned that Israel would retaliate if Iran launched attacks against Israel due to events in Lebanon. He said the security zone in southern Lebanon would be cleared of local residents and "all terrorist infrastructure, including houses in contact villages", in reference to Hezbollah.
Israeli forces have been razing villages in southern Lebanon for weeks, stating that their operations target Hezbollah militants embedded in civilian areas of the predominantly Shi'ite region. Hundreds of thousands of Lebanese Shi'ites have sought refuge elsewhere in the country as a result of those operations.
Context included in the announcement
The conflict has been described as the deadliest spillover between the U.S. and Iran, with thousands killed and some 1.2 million people uprooted by an Israeli offensive aimed at the Iran-backed Hezbollah group. Hezbollah opened fire on Israel in support of Tehran on March 2, and Iran, whose Revolutionary Guards established Hezbollah in 1982, had insisted that any broader deal with the United States include a ceasefire in Lebanon.
Outlook
Despite the mediator's statement about a wide-ranging halt to hostilities, municipal authorities and displaced residents in southern Lebanon signalled deep skepticism about an immediate return to normalcy. Israeli authorities' stated intention to maintain security zones and to continue clearing what they term terrorist infrastructure indicates potential continuity of military operations on the ground, even if the broader diplomatic claim of cessation has been made.
Report contains statements and quotations from displaced residents, municipal councils and government officials as noted above.